Richard King's scraping class

I wanted to share my experiences with PMers about attending a Richard King scraping class.

Has anyone on the board taken Richard’s class?

For those of you who do not know who Rich is; he is a gentleman that teaches scraping, both hand and power. He has taught all around the world
and is willing to teach any one the techniques to rebuild a machine tool.
He will teach in a home shop, or an industrial setting.

I recently took a compressed three day course at a members home shop.
We had a five person class that consisted of a Watchmaker, Psychiatrist,
Network Administrator, Machinist and a Road Grater/House mover.
It was awesome spending three full days engrossed with like minded guy’s who were all willing to spend the time to learn the art, and have the same goal to rebuild their equipment.
Ironically enough we all had machines that were in pieces and were waiting to be rebuilt.

The three day class consisted of; general theory, hand scraping, power scraping, power flaking and machine tool rebuilding, we even straightened a gib. My brain was filled with old time knowledge from Rich that he has learned from the old time masters that seldom seem to exist these days. It was great to have a pro watch and critique us while we were going trough the rebuilding steps.

Having the base knowledge is great, I am now able to critique and judge what I am doing wrong. I still need to work on my hand scraping I (the machinist) had the hardest time with the hand scraping, I made my hand scraper more flexible and now works a lot better.

I was thinking one day how it would be great to take Forrest and Don’s class to learn from all the masters that are teaching scraping. If it was close to Milwaukee I would do it annually if I could.
Then I started to wonder about a joint class, with Forrest, Don and Richard.
Has anyone else had this same thought?
I wonder what the teachers would think?

The class Rich is advertising is at his shop in Minnesota. I think it might be a Saturday-Sunday class. The price doesn’t seem too bad either. He stated that he would be able to tailor a class to the individuals’ skill level and what they wanted to learn.

Teaching Scraping

I love to teach what my Dad taught me and will travel just about anywhere to pass on the skill. I would love to teach with Forest and Don, one can never learn enough. My Dad (Herman Red King, inventor of the KingWay) use to tell me "Your never to old to learn, and when you're done learning you will be dead"
I was advertising a class on Ebay here in Minnesota in June, but changed it to say I would teach at your place or mine. I have been talking friends MI, IL, VA and Dapra in CT and asked them to host. All seem interested to hear more. I would think we 3 teachers and I bet there are more who read these boards would be willing to share their knowledge. My old foreman Craig Laurich, who also reads these boards told me he would also like to teach. Just needs a place and the time to meet his schedule. I am now semi retired and would try to go when and where if asked. Thanks Matt....I had a grand time teaching you and the guys in WI. Rich

I'm new here on PM. I was another participant (the psychiatrist) in the Ashland, WI hand/power scraping/flaking class taught by Mr. Richard King in April.

To share a little of my machine-related background, I have been machining for a little over a year. I became interested in machine tool accuracy after struggling to simply cut a pair of V-blocks that were square, despite being able to consistently tram my mill to less than 5 tenths per 6" along both the X-and-Y axes. Anyway, I learned what I could about accurizing machinery, which led me to the topic of scraping, and somewhere I came across the name of Richard King. I found out that he is local to me and offered scraping classes.

From the first time I contacted Richard, he was interested in me and my interest in scraping, and in what I was trying to accomplish, etc. He had one spot left for the Ashland, WI scraping class, and I took it. Subsequently, he took a fair amount of time helping me via both email and over the phone telling me what to check (and how) on my mill so we could come up with a "game plan" of what my mill would need to be set right. Meanwhile, I'd gotten the Connelly book, Machine Tool Reconditioning and Applications of Hand Scraping, and started reading it.

I arrived in Ashland to find that the recommended motel, with all rooms facing Lake Superior, was very clean, nice and, a complete steal at $31.95/night. The directions provided were concise and accurate.

The first day of the class we gathered at Al's (the hosting individual) shop. It was clean, well-lit, roomy, and Al and another participant had constructed a very rigid 4' x 8' workbench expressly for the workshop. My initial (and persisting) impression was that the class was well-planned-for, and everything was set up to maximize efficiency. Many thanks to Al & Darren for that.

We started off by watching Richard's DVD of hand/power scraping. This was very helpful, as learning by watching beats trying to figure out the nuances of a new activity just by reading about it. I've watched the DVD twice more in the last 2 weeks at home. On top of that, Richard provided us with workbooks he'd made; we referred to these numerous times during the 3-day class. Likewise, when I start scraping my machine parts, I will be referring to mine frequently.

We learned how to scrape on 4" x 12" x 1" thick iron plates. I think most of us spent a bit more than the first day scraping our plates to good bearing surfaces of about 20 points per inch, with the goal being about 40-50% coverage. I got my 20 points per inch, but had less areas of less coverage, so I will practice more on scrap metal at home. Others seemed to get more coverage, if I recall. The we learned to hand flake.

The we learned power scraping. Between Richard and another participant (thanks Frank), we had two diamond wheel grinders to make quick work of resharpening the carbide blades. Again, we tried for about 20 points per inch and 40-50% coverage.
We also got to learn how to use the power flaker (much fun).

Amongst the hand and power scraping, we all had the chance to try different scrapers, different blades, different settings, etc.

Richard also taught us how to effect way repair with Turcite, and we got the experience of scraping Turcite, too.

The days went by quickly. I honestly cannot recall the last time I have had 11-12 hour days go by so quickly.

Because snacks were generously provided, we "worked through" lunch. We took time to sit and learn from Richard, though. He frequently called us over to one workstation or another to show us what was good, bad, or otherwise about what was being done there. That way, we got to learn from the successes, as well as mistakes, of others. That is very helpful when you are trying to assimilate a very large amount of information in just 3 days. Included in this was frequent guidance about how to do a proper job of way repair that will last, versus a scraping job that will only provide short-term alignment accuracy.

Richard also showed us how to use the King-Way alignment checking device so we could see how two parallel ways were in relation to each other. (Since it has two very sensitive levels vials on it, he also showed us how much a 6" thick concrete slab will deflect from the movement of 4-5 grown men moving a few feet on it.)

I was able to bring my milling table and saddle, and after the formal scraping instruction and work was completed Richard worked directly with me to determine what was out of alignment, and by how much. My measurements at home suggested that the table was bowed, and checking it at the class confirmed this, as well as showing that most of it's top was not parallel to its ways. We found that the saddle was better, but not completely parallel from top to bottom.

As such, instead of thinking, "Great...I have a messed-up mill that cannot even be used to cut things square/parallel/flat..." now my thinking is: "I have had the opportunity to attend a great class that has given me all I need to know how to scrape my machine, and the Connelly book will show me more about where to scrape it and how to check it to ensure I can set it right."

As a teacher, Richard is experienced, thorough, and patient. He seems to love teaching scraping, and never hesitated to show us something himself, so we could learn by watching when we struggled with something. I found him to be a very constructive teacher. We all seemed to have a lot of fun, and made new friends. Despite the long days of standing, which could get tiring, there was a lot of humor about "The teacher's pet" or "When do we get to 'scrape' the surface plate?" (This struck fear in Alan for a moment until he realized I was joking.)

Tip: If any of you go to a scraping class, do what MCritchley wisely did, and take a small anti-fatigue mat with you. I didn't think to bring mine. and wish I did. Even a rubber doormat will help. I did try a rubber car floor mat, but found it too floppy and too small to be helpful.

In sum, I would recommend a scraping class with Mr. Richard King absolutely whole-heartedly, and with zero reservations.

I too, would be up for learning more about scraping in another class from Forrest/Don and/or Richard.

Mr King, I would be honored to teach along side you as am sure Forrest would be also. I think the exchange of ideas between the three of us would enhance the class and would be a great opportunity for the students to learn and ourselves also. ( I always learn when I'm teaching) I look forward to a day when we can arrange just such a class.
Sincerely Don L. Roberts

Yup, What Don said. I've known Richard for - what - 22 years off and on. We've labored in neighboring vinyards all that time and never had a chance to teach together. Time to remedy that. I'm looking forward to the opportunity.

Sounds like a grand time Don and Forest, I bet we could have a time. I have been teaching something Forest taught me 22 years ago...when I was teaching scraping at Bremerton. Te flip the dial indicator over and seeing the sag. I had know they would sag, but his demonstration was so simple and easy to teach to all the students. The WI guys saw that one too... Thanks Forest. I have changed in 22 years..I gained a few pounds and my hair would be grey if I didn't dye it..ha ha ha :-) Rich

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